Just got back from a two-night Einstürzende Neubauten extravaganza in London. Bloody fantastic.

The first night was a "standard" Einstürzende Neubauten gig inthe HMV Forum. The second night was in the much smaller (and more personal) venue of the Relentless Garage, and consisted of an Einstürzende Neubauten set of rarer and never-played-live-before tracks, sets from a couple of spin-off projects, and various films.

Looks like footage of the 2nd night is already surfacing on YouTube, including this clip of Einstürzende Neubauten playing Seele Brennt:

All this weekend i attended and reviewed the Iceland Airwaves music Festival for the Reykjavik Grapevine. It was a pretty hectic furious weekend. Both Partying very hard and trying to ensure i handed in my review copy at the same time. At one point i was half slouched in front of the work PC at 4am mainling vodka out of the bottle, while describing a band as causing the crowd to metastisize into a singe cancerous mass with weird looking orifices (a bit like the climax to the Horror film society)

Here were some highlights

- Watching Mount Kimbie and James Blake. Mount Kimbie were excellent, but young mr Blake was possibly on of the best DJ sets i've heard in the last few years. some of the stuff he was sampling was pretty much "out there". And i was lucky enough to get drunk with them on Saturday while they did an impromptu DJ set at my Local, Bakkus.

Went to see the Smashing Pumpkins on Saturday, supported by our local City Riots. The gig was slightly underwhelming for the following reasons: a) none of my friends had deigned to come with me, b) I had forgotten my earplugs and thus found the front section intolerable by the halfway mark, partly because c) the fucking sound techs had decided that the knob which REALLY ought to go up to eleven was the one marked REEEEEEEVERRRRRRRB and d) it cost me goddamn $80 and I don't even like the Pumpkins as much as bands I regularly pay $20-50 for.

That aside, the bands themselves put on a top-notch show beneath the disco-ball windmills adorning the stage. In particular both drummers were absolutely on and the vibration was beautiful (admittedly it was also the only thing that couldn't be fucked up by the goddamn reverb). The crowd was also excellent, which is why probably the most disappointing thing was forgetting the earplugs -- I rarely go to shows that big, so I'd forgotten that they calibrate them for volume at the back -- because it has been ages since I've been in a tight friendly mosh and I didn't get to enjoy this one because I had to fuck off out of it like four songs into the Pumpkins' set lest I actually die.

I went my first show in a looong time last week. One of my favorite bands, Screeching Weasel, reassembled last year after a ten-year breakup, and played in Covington, KY. It was quite excellent. Made me feel kind of old, though. A bunch of young punks there, and my surly 28-year-old ass. Still, it was a lot of fun.

Surprisingly, I had more fun watching TRAPPED UNDER ICE here than I did in the US. I think it was because I wasn't in danger of getting my face beaten in by douchebags. I mean, yes, it's still tough guy "world is a vampire we've gotta stay cold" genre stuff, but there was something endearing about the vocalist this time around.

Got a gig tomorrow I'm really excited about - Vom / The Cosmic Dead / Xavier & The Bastard / NOMA. The Cosmic Dead is excellent droney / doomy stuff featuring one of the dudes from my old local record shop in Stirling. First time in about six months I've had a chance to go see him play, so well excited. No idea what Vom and Xavier & The Bastard are like, but last time I saw NOMA (playing alongside The Radiation Line, record shop guy's other band) his performance used the body of a bass guitar run through masses of distortion pedals and "played" using the interference from mobile phones and laptops. Genuinely brilliant, even if I did have to leave the room at one point because the high frequencies were starting to get painful.

If any Whitechapelers (Whitechapelites?) are in Glasgow and like that sort of thing, come along and say hi. I'll be the skinny guy with long hair, a huge military jacket and a Cigarette of Victory t-shirt.

Went to my first Gwar show last night :D It was a of fun, but by the the most crushing I've experienced in any pit ever. Though I think this had less to do with the fact that it was Gwar and more to do with the fact that the House of Blues in San Diego is a teeny tiny venue (okay, it's also Gwar's fault - everyone wants to be right up front in the blood splash zone). It also doesn't help that the floor gets all slippery with the fake blood. BUT, lots of fun, regardless. It's definitely somewhat boggling going to a metal show where most of the crowd are wearing white shirts instead of black, and very entertaining being able to tell how close or far people were to the stage based on how red their shirt has gotten. I definitely recommend seeing part of the show up front by the stage and part of the show from the back of the room. It's hard to see how ridiculous and cool their costumes are when you're constantly being sprayed in the face with blood.

that room holds 1000, which is about the averagre size venue they headline these days...

after seeing MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE play an 800 person theater 2 hours away, i swore i would never go see them again as that was as good as it was going to get for a band of that size. ive seen them in arenas, and that is something i will never put up with again. ugh. then i find out the tour for KILLJOYS is ending a 20 minute train ride from home, at a 1000 person venue...shit. looks like i am going again! now my main worry is that they bring an opener on tour that isnt horrendous.